Whining In The Summertime
by Eternal Love Song
Summary: Todoroki and Uraraka go out for ice cream. [Established relationship]


There was a low whine floating throughout the room. It had begun as a sigh, a soft sound floating up from the floor and nearly imperceptible from his place on the bed. Todoroki had noted the sound, waited for a follow up of some sort, and then returned to studying. A sigh was just that, after all, and nothing lead him to believe that he needed to do anything to address the sound, so there was no reason to stop what he was doing.

The sounds didn't stop. The sighs repeated in a slowly increasing frequency until they evolved into the low whines that he was hearing now.

At first, he'd paused at every sound, waiting for some statement to follow or instruction to be given, until he finally began to ignore them entirely. Now he looked over the edge of the bed where his girlfriend was laying face down on the floor, text book closed by her side, and taking what was a whine and moving it to more of a groan. He had already realized that she wasn't going to say anything, but he was only just starting to realize that perhaps he was supposed to.

Looking at her very distraught position firmed his resolve that this sound was a prompt of some sort to get him to engage with her. Why she didn't she just speak if she wanted something?

"Uraraka?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

She lifted her head but did not look at him as she let out a long, lingering groan. "Hoooot."

Was that... words? He honestly couldn't tell if that was meat to be some sort of code or not. Maybe he simply misheard her.

"What was that?" he asked her.

"Hot!" she repeated, dragging the syllable out once more but stressing the pronunciation in such a way that he could actually decipher it this time.

"You're hot." He repeated it just to be clear, but looking more closely at her, he knew that it wasn't necessary. He could see the sweat on her, recognize the way she pressed herself to the floor, trying to stay as far from the heat that was rising in the room as she possibly could. Her whining made more sense as well. Uraraka just... did that sometimes... when things bothered her. It was one of those things that he still hadn't gotten used to. He couldn't understand the reason for making these noises as opposed to just addressing the problem directly.

"I'm gonna die!" she exclaimed. "It's a million degrees today."

"That's not-"

"It's too hot to be accurate!" she said, cutting him off.

He remained silent in the face of her response. There was nothing to say, really, if she didn't want accuracy. He wasn't certain what she wanted to gain from giving him this information. He already knew that it was hot. He could feel the heat just like she could, could read the thermometer on the wall just as easily even if he couldn't.

Todoroki watched her lay miserably on the ground. Perhaps she hadn't wanted anything but to share her discomfort with him. If that was the case, what could e do with this information? He thought for a while. The only thing he could think to do with this information was to attempt to solver her problem. That had to be what she wanted, right?

"I can help," he told her. He held up his right hand. "I can try to cool you off."

Uraraka looked up at him and smiled.

He took that as encouragement, sliding off of the bed and moving closer to her. He covered his arm with ice, moving to place his arm on her forehead until he found himself suddenly floating away. He hadn't noticed her hand resting on his leg until she begun to remove it.

Confused, Todoroki let himself drift to the ceiling without resistance or flailing, watch as she got to her feet. She brushed off her clothes before reaching out for his hand. The one that was not covered in ice, he noted. Todoroki gave it to her without complaint.

"Let's just go get ice cream," she said.

"Oh."

A much simpler solution than he realized. He knew that he's verbalized his response only because he saw her reacting to it, saw her eyes sparkle and her smile widen. He enjoyed seeing her smile. He was never quite certain of what he did to put it there, but he enjoying seeing nonetheless. He enjoyed knowing that he could make her smile. Unlike his other friends, he hadn't caused her any ill effect and hopefully never would. He hadn't caused her to break a hand or sparked confidence issues, hadn't made her scream nor had he made her cry.

She released her power and he landed on his feet, still watching her. "I want to protect you," he said aloud. There was no particular reason to verbalize his thoughts, it just slipped out. That was something she did to him often, making his say his thoughts out loud.

Uraraka blinked at him. "What?"

"Nothing." He tugged on her hand as he walked toward the door. "Let's go."

For somehow that had made such a big deal about being hot, she was very touchy with him. At first it was just her keeping their hand intertwined. That morphed into her wrapping herself around his arm and finally into her laying her head on his should. It couldn't be that comforting when she'd complained about heat and she wasn't even touching his cooler side.

"Aren't you hot still?" he asked her.

She hummed in contentment, but didn't say a word. She was really confusing sometimes. Were all girls this confused or...?

It didn't take long to find an ice cream vendor. Uraraka got a double scoop of chocolate while she convinced him to get to get one scoop of strawberry and one of vanilla. It took him a few minutes, minutes that were filled with her ceaseless giggling, before he realized why.

"Oh. We match," he said when the realization struck.

Her laughed increased, warming him. "Yep. You match perfectly," she told him.

She was... cute. Uraraka was cute. He liked that about her. She was such a ray of sunshine. He embraced the idea of her and in fact, leaned closer to embrace the physical part of her as well.

Her face flushed as red as his hair. "Ah! To-Todoroki, you never initiate hugs! What's going on?" Her voice was wobbly and flustered. She was right, he didn't tend to initiate hugs. He didn't tend to initiate many forms of physical affection. In this moment though, he could understand why it was that people did it so often. That she did it so often. He spoke his conclusion out loud.

"You're cute, Uraraka."

"Th-that doesn't sound like the Todoroki that I know."

"Should I take it back?" he asked her.

"Don't you dare!" She exclaimed, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug of her own. "I like this side of you."

Me too, he thought, but chose not to say. He wasn't sure that it would lead anywhere and for the moment, he wanted to just enjoy her company and not analyze his own motives and feelings.

"Wanna walk around some more?"

"Please," she agreed easily. Her smile was still bright as she untangled herself from him and took his hand in hers.


End file.
